Musician and activist Bono accepts the 2005 TED Prize with a riveting talk, arguing that aid to Africa isn't just another celebrity cause; it's a global emergency.

As E.O. Wilson accepts his 2007 TED Prize, he makes a plea on behalf of all creatures that we learn more about our biosphere -- and build a networked encyclopedia of all the world's knowledge about life.

Physicist Lee Smolin talks about how the scientific community works: as he puts it, "we fight and argue as hard as we can," but everyone accepts that the next generation of scientists will decide who's right. And, he says, that's how democracy works, too.

Speaking at TED in 1998, Rev. Billy Graham marvels at technology's power to improve lives and change the world -- but says the end of evil, suffering and death will come only after the world accepts Christ. A legendary talk from TED's archives.

This animation is part of the TED-Ed series, "There's a Poem for That," which features animated interpretations of poems both old and new that give language to some of life's biggest feelings. [Poem by Denice Frohman, directed by KAPWA / Robertino Zambrano, music by Bamm Bamm Wolfgang].

Firing off her formidable beatboxing skills, musician Butterscotch serenades -- over a hauntingly beautiful backtrack made live on stage -- and shares pieces of her own story as a shoutout to those struggling through dark times. "We have to be compassionate with ourselves, allow acceptance for who we are -- even on our worst days when we're stil...

It’s a question on so many minds: what will the future of education look like? It’s something Sir Ken Robinson has asked for decades. And tonight in Session 3 of TED2013, Robinson got the opportunity to announce the winner of the 2013 TED Prize, someone who has a bold answer. “So many kids are disengaged from education and there’s a t...

Each year, the TED Prize is awarded to an extraordinary individual with a creative and bold vision to spark global change. Think JR’s global participatory art project, Inside Out, or Sugata Mitra’s School in the Cloud. By leveraging the TED community’s resources to support the winner and investing $1 million in their idea, the TED Prize insp...

Amy Purdy became a professional snowboarder despite losing both her legs to meningitis. She encourages us to take control of our lives, and our limits.

Gerard Senehi is a performer of tiny miracles or, if you're looking for a more formal job title, a mentalist. A mentalist is someone who blows people's minds by doing things that just can't be explained through science or reason and Gerard is exactly that. Be it his hands-off approach to smoking a cigarette, his ability to mostly read your m...

Brimming with insights gained on her picaresque journey from firefighter to best-selling author, Caroline Paul’s "The Gutsy Girl: Escapades for Your Life of Epic Adventure" is a revolutionary guide for raising brave young women.

Tony Award-winning monologist, UNICEF ambassador, firebrand and FCC-fighting poet -- Sarah Jones assumes as many roles offstage as on.

Last night at SXSW, William and the Windmill was awarded one of the festival’s top two honors, taking home Grand Jury Award for Documentary Feature. The film tells the story of TED Speaker William Kamkwamba, who has come to be known by the title of his memoir, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. At age 14, Kamkwamba built a windmill out of junk par...

When he set out to create a photo essay on “poverty in America” in 2005, photographer Aaron Huey had no idea what was in store for him. What started as one story soon consumed his life as he became a committed activist devoted to raising awareness about Native American treaty rights. Just last month, he launched Honor the Treaties, a national ca...

About this event: Is there some success in failure? Pablo Foncillas says Yes. According to him, we are too much focused on success and do not accept failure. Looking only at success and not reflecting about the mistakes we have done can kill innovation. Thus, we need urgently a culture which accepts success as well as failure and sees failure as part of the creat...

Shai Reshef wants to democratize higher education.

This morning, we're thrilled to present a TEDTalk as you have never seen a TEDTalk before -- with a clickable layer of information that anyone can add to, edit or remix. Working on Beau Lotto and Amy O'Toole's new TEDTalk, the team at Mozilla used their new web-based video editing / annotating tool, Popcorn Maker. Today's TED Talk from Ryan M...

“Movies have proved to be the ultimate medium for magic,” says Don Levy in today’s talk. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and former senior vice president of marketing and communications at Sony Pictures, Levy has always been fascinated by the sleights of hand that filmmakers use to create illusions. And he knows he i...

How should we start to tackle the Zika virus? MIT's José Gómez-Márquez and Lee Gehrke share their bright idea. Not enough is known about the Zika virus, but with links to brain inflammation and microcephaly, it’s clear that it has devastating effects -- and it isn’t going away any time soon. And there’s another issue: The medical community isn’...

If Bill Nye, Jackson Pollock and Rube Goldberg ever had a hack week, the end project might resemble "Nature’s Drawings," a project from scientist/artist Fabian Oefner. Whether he’s capturing the rainbow colors of a film of oil in spectacular detail or catching oddly shaped iridescent soap bubbles just as they’re about to pop, Fabian Oefner has ...

We each live in the shadow of a personal apocalypse: the knowledge that -- someday, somehow -- we will die. It's a terrifying thought, and so we look for a way out. In my talk from TEDxBratislava (and in my book Immortality), I walk through four stories that people have told throughout cultures and time, as a way to manage this very real fea...

Momentum is great. But how do you sustain it? This session will examine what it takes to keep on keeping on, from speakers who are just starting out and those who've been at it for decades. Short recaps of the talks in this session... The number one abuse of human rights. Former president Jimmy Carter begins with jokes (looking out at ...

We see the familiar symbol everywhere -- in text messages, signs, cakes, clothing, and more. But we also know the real heart looks nothing like it. Historian Marilyn Yalom tells us how the anatomical organ became the symbol that we all know today. In 2011, I went to the British Museum in London to see a collection of 15th-century artifacts, whi...

Inviting speakers to give a talk at your event takes more work (and finesse) than you might think. You should know how to craft a great invitation, and the information your prospective speakers need to know. What makes a good invitation? Your speaker or performer’s invitation should be a formal letter or email, outlining the reasons why you’re...

Lawyer and activist Nighat Dad talks about the fight to create a more accessible internet for women and other marginalized groups in her home country of Pakistan. There had never been a woman like Qandeel Baloch in Pakistan. In 2013, when she was 23 years old, her dramatic audition on Pakistan Idol went viral, and in the years that followed, sh...

Whether you're staying put or going away, summer can be a great time to relax and try new things. So we asked TED speakers to recommend podcasts, books, TV shows, movies and more that have nourished their minds, spirits and bodies (yes, you'll find a link to a recipe for olive-cheese loaf below) in recent times. You can use the links here to ju...

It was a normal Tuesday at the superconductor, until a bug in the system caused your team to be trapped in 11 separate dimensions. Fortunately, there's a half-finished experimental teleportation robot that may be able to get you all home... if you can figure out how to work it. Can you work out the robot's design quirks and get your team back ho...

Swami Dayananda Saraswati unravels the parallel paths of personal development and attaining true compassion. He walks us through each step of self-realization, from helpless infancy to the fearless act of caring for others.

With Marvel's "America Chavez," Gabby Rivera wrote a new kind of superhero -- one who can punch portals into other dimensions while also embracing her gentle, goofy, soft side. In a funny, personal talk, Rivera shares how her own childhood as a queer Puerto Rican in the Bronx informed this new narrative -- and shows images from the comic book th...

What's the key to using alternative energy, like solar and wind? Storage -- so we can have power on tap even when the sun's not out and the wind's not blowing. In this accessible, inspiring talk, Donald Sadoway takes to the blackboard to show us the future of large-scale batteries that store renewable energy. As he says: "We need to think about ...